Tide | It is time! - Recruitment and employer branding video
The brief:
As Norway's second-largest mobility company, Tide operates a fleet of roughly 2,200 buses and 34 light rail vehicles, carrying half a million passengers every day.
Like the rest of the country, Tide is grappling with a severe driver shortage, and its biggest challenge is recruiting new, skilled drivers to help keep this vital infrastructure running. With its new campaign, Tide set out to raise awareness of that need, while also building a more positive association with both the profession and Tide as an employer.
"Our marketing team at Tide has spent a lot of time on employer branding and recruitment. Along the way we've gathered a lot of valuable insight, and the results tell us we're on the right track. Up to now we've produced all our content in-house, but this time we had the opportunity to bring in an external agency to help. After a short pitch process, we chose Sølvrev. What set them apart was a concept that struck a real chord with us emotionally, while still hitting every mark in our brief — including our wish for an overarching concept flexible enough to carry new messages over time," says Kine Foss Eliassen, Marketing Manager at Tide.
"Many of us at Sølvrev have fond memories and associations tied to bus rides and drivers from childhood. I grew up in the countryside myself, where the local bus was an essential part of everyday life just to get around. But it feels like we've somewhat lost sight of how important these drivers are to our daily lives — they're driving around some of the most precious cargo there is, our children, and for a lot of families, having two cars simply isn't an option, so the logistics depend on them. Maybe we've gotten a little too used to staring at our phones on the bus instead of saying hello. But these are the people who get up before the rest of us to get us where we need to go, and are the last to go to bed, making sure everyone gets home safely. With this campaign, we wanted to pay tribute to all of them, while reminding viewers of the essential role drivers play in our everyday lives," says Sølvrev concept developer Mariann Lunde.
The solution:
In just two days of production, Sølvrev delivered two main films for social media — one in West Norwegian dialect, one in East Norwegian — along with a shorter TV cut, still images for ads, and two radio spots. Throughout, the team worked closely with Tide, who helped with planning and logistics and even recruited their own drivers to appear in the films.
"When the client genuinely enjoys the filmmaking process, that energy becomes contagious, and the collaboration just works. To capture as authentic pictures of everyday work life as possible — and to build internal pride and ownership around the campaign — it was important to get real drivers in front of the camera," says director William Glandberger. "We even had a Norwegian precision-driving champion on the team, who's a bit of a YouTube star under the name BergenBusDriver, filming himself driving various routes. What a legend," Glandberger adds.
"Working with Sølvrev has been fantastic. At Tide, it mattered to us to feature our own ambassadors, and through this film we've been able to showcase the invaluable work our drivers do every day, built internal pride and engagement, and clearly communicated the need for more drivers. We've found the Sølvrev team to be creative, solutions-oriented and genuinely open to feedback — and they have a real gift for taking care of the people in front of the camera, which made both our extras and our own drivers feel at ease," Eliassen concludes.
